Palm Oil Extends Rally as Greek Deal Boosts Commodities Outlook

Palm Oil Extends Rally as Greek Deal Boosts Commodities Outlook

Palm oil advanced for a third day
after euro-area ministers agreed to a second bailout for Greece,
boosting optimism that raw-materials demand may climb and
putting prices on course for the best run since December.
The May-delivery contract climbed as much as 0.6 percent to
3,263 ringgit ($1,082) per metric ton on the Malaysia
Derivatives Exchange, and traded at 3,256 ringgit at 4:20 p.m.
in Kuala Lumpur. The most-active contract reached 3,276 ringgit
in intraday trade yesterday, the highest level since June 15.
Finance ministers awarded 130 billion euros ($173 billion)
in aid, engineered a central-bank transfer and coaxed investor
representatives into providing more debt relief to help tide
Greece past a bond redemption next month and prevent default.
The agreement was reached after 13 ½ hours of talks in Brussels.
The deal brought “positive sentiments in the market,”
Ryan Long, vice president of futures and options at OSK
Investment Bank Bhd., said from Kuala Lumpur. Expectations that
stockpiles in Malaysia may drop also supported prices, he said.
Inventories in the second-largest producer may decline to
1.9 million tons in February as exports improve, Long said.
Stockpiles fell for a fourth month in January to 2.01 million
tons, the Malaysian Palm Oil Board said on Feb. 10.
Malaysian shipments fell 2 percent to 783,112 tons in the
first 20 days of February from 799,210 tons in the same period
last month, surveyor Intertek said yesterday. Exports fell 0.6
percent to 777,728 tons, Societe Generale de Surveillance said.
Soybeans for delivery in May rallied as much as 0.5 percent
to $12.8025 per bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade, the
highest price since Sept. 23 after China agreed to buy 13.4
million tons of U.S. supplies last week. Soybean oil for
delivery the same month rose as much as 0.6 percent to 54.13
cents per pound, the highest level since Sept. 22.
Palm oil for delivery in September gained 0.4 percent to
close at 8,366 ($1,329) a ton on the Dalian Commodity Exchange.
Soybean oil for delivery in the same month climbed 0.3 percent
to close at 9,402 yuan a ton.